# Judge Somers — Spoon River Anthology character guide

> Judge Somers in Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Jonathan Somers, Jonathan Swift Somers

**First appearance:** 0014-judge-somers

## Snapshot

Jonathan Swift Somers, the circuit judge whose rulings favor railroads and bankers while the town's ordinary citizens pay the price.

## Who they are

Judge Somers presides over Spoon River's legal affairs with an eye toward the powerful interests that keep him in office. Daisy Fraser's bitter accounting of who benefited from his judgments and who did not makes clear that his courtroom served the "Q" railroad and the bankers before it served justice. His role in the early arc exposes how thoroughly the town's institutions have been captured by money.

## Relationships

### [Thomas Rhodes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters/thomas_rhodes)

_professional_

Judge Somers and Thomas Rhodes were corrupt political allies who manipulated the town's legal and financial systems.

### [William Jones](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters/william_jones)

_professional_

Judge Somers presided over cases involving William Jones, a petty criminal, with biased authority.

### [Benjamin Pantier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters/benjamin_pantier)

_rivalry_

Benjamin Pantier despised Judge Somers for his hypocrisy and role in the town's moral decay.

## In the story

### [Judge Somers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/judge-somers)

The speaker, a former lawyer of great learning and renown, now lies forgotten in an unmarked grave.

### [Jack McGuire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/jack-mcguire)

Friend of Thomas Rhodes; complicit in the legal bargain to help Rhodes escape prosecution.

### [Mrs. Charles Bliss](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/mrs-charles-bliss)

Advised Mrs. Charles Bliss not to divorce her husband, contributing to the preservation of a harmful marriage.

### [Penniwit, the Artist](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/penniwit-the-artist)

Subject of Penniwit's best photograph, captured mid-exception with his characteristic cross-eye.

### [Jonathan Swift Somers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/jonathan-swift-somers)

The speaker, Jonathan Swift Somers, addresses the reader directly, embodying the voice of hard-won wisdom and disillusionment.

### [Oaks Tutt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/oaks-tutt)

Challenges Oaks Tutt to a debate on Pontius Pilate and wins by posing the question 'What is truth?'

### [Imanuel Ehrenhardt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/imanuel-ehrenhardt)

The source of the philosophical books that Imanuel Ehrenhardt borrows.

### [The Spooniad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/the-spooniad)

Author of the epic fragment, depicted as a deep student of life and a counselor to the conservative faction.

### [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/endnotes)

Referenced as Jonathan Swift Somers in the endnotes.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters/judge_somers
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/characters